Emeli Sandé: Women’s Day march shows we’re angry at injustices in world

Sandé, 32, will be joined by Game Of Thrones star Natalie Dormer and 1917 actor George MacKay, who will both give speeches. She called on more people to join, with 5,000 already expected to attend.

She told the Standard: “I don’t think anything is more powerful than physical presence so it’s poignant that we are all going to be together and let everybody know that we are angry at the injustices and we want change.

“Feminism and women’s rights aren’t this separate entity that only have one day to be spoken about… until there is balance throughout, we are not really going to make much progress.”

A key theme of IWD events across the capital this year will be climate change as a feminist issue.

Speakers on the topic will include former president of Ireland Mary Robinson and Helen Pankhurst, the great-grandaughter of suffragette movement founder Emmeline. Ms Pankhurst said: “Women and girls have specific vulnerabilities around climate emergencies.

“If any of the suffragettes lived right now they wouldn’t be saying, ‘We did it, you can sit back and relax.’ They’d be saying there is still so much to do.”

Sandé added: “The climate change focus is personally important to me as my father is from Zambia and my family is still over there and really feeling the effects of climate change.” Other events being held across the capital include the 10th Wow festival at the Royal Festival Hall, where writer Naomi Wolf and ex-Australian PM Julia Gillard are speaking.

Events will also focus on the pressure women feel to be “likeable”, with Fleabag actress Sian Clifford and The Guilty Feminist podcast host Deborah Frances-White.

Ms Gillard, who heads the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London, highlighted the World Economic Forum projection that the time period for closing the gender gap around the world has reduced but still stands at 99.5 years.

She said: “We need [the gap] to come down more quickly. We have to change the things that are holding women back.”

She also called for advances in making the online environment safer for women, highlighting the “toxicity of social media” faced by females.

Speaking at We Day in London this week, a charity event rewarding young people for social action, actress Gwendoline Christie said it was vital young women “feel their own relevance and power”.